ETHICAL GOURMET / Remind me to Tell You About the Time I Looked in the Heart of an Artichoke

BY BRYAN LAVERY

  BY BRYAN LAVERY Recently, my nephew Nicholas and I were guests of Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa.   For our culinary road trip we were provided with an all-new Lexus 2016 RX350 from Lexus of London. We drove to Stratford for a delicious repast of chicken and waffles at The Red Rabbit restaurant and a trip to the Slow Food Market, arriving at Langdon Hall at three in the afternoon. As we turned into Langdon Hall’s discreet driveway and drove up the winding road, we passed through wooded acreage dusted with a light snowfall and arrived at the 75-acre hilltop estate’s main house, which is the centerpiece of the estate. Built in 1898 as the lavish summer retreat of Eugene Langdon Wilks , (a great-great-grandson of John Jacob Astor), the imposing main house is inspired by Georgian and Classical traditions of the Federal Revival Style. The property, with its expansive gardens and Carolinian trails, is situated in the countryside just o

    Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef/owner of New York’s Prune, the author of both the memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef ranks and the Prune cookbook, and a star of season 4 of the PBS series Mind of a Chef. It is my opinion that Hamilton ranks among the upper echelons of food memoirists M.F.K. Fisher and Elizabeth David. Launching her Canadian visit on January 11th 2016 , Chef Gabrielle Hamilton will be in conversation with fellow Joseph Hoare Gastronomic Writer In Residence and notable author Ian Brown at the Toronto Public Library Appel Salon Series. The two acclaimed authors will discuss Hamilton’s life as a chef and writer. This event will be held at the Appel Salon in Toronto Reference Library. While in residence at the Stratford Chefs School, Chef Hamilton will work alongside students for three dinners, bringing her Prune to Stratford’s Prune Restaurant (the school’s dinner venue partner). Dates include: Friday January